Media Days

For our first installment of media days we'll travel to the Colorado campus. Coach Bustedukulele has his team riding high after a big upset against Georgia. For the first time in a while there's excitement surrounding the Buffaloes and the players really seem to be responding the new coaching staff's philosophies. Below are some excerpts from the weekly press conference.

Georgia has looked good early yet you managed to pull off the big win. How did your team prepare for them? Georgia is a strong team with great playmakers all over the field. AJ Green is the key to their offense. When we looked at shutting him down we noticed most of his big catches come off of play action. So we sent multiple blitzers at the run game on first and second. This actually got us beat on a couple of occasions but overall I think it was effective.
On offense we struggled to move the ball. The turnovers really hurt us. But the play of the game was Lockridge's kickoff return after they tied up the game.

There's been a lot of uncertainty in the CU program lately...what kind of season do you see the Buffs having this year? Uncertainty? You know, I don't buy that. This kids come in here and work hard every single day and I think that shows on the field. You might think I'm crazy but I think we have a shot at the Big 12 title. We are undefeated in conference play and we have veteran leadership on both sides of .the ball. I like our chances.
The Big 12 has its share of powerhouse programs like Oklahoma and Texas. How long until CU is competitive in the Big 12 again? It's always tough to compete with such historic programs like Oklahoma and Texas. They can pretty much stay in state to recruit some of the best athletes in the country. But here at Colorado, we have some history too. And our kids come here to beat teams like that. I don't look past this year for us to start knocking off some of those teams.
You obviously have a rebuilding effort in front of you. Can you tell us a little bit about your strategies for recruiting, coaching, etc that will help CU rise to glory? In order to get back into national title contention we do have some work to do. Colorado is a great state, but we look at the whole country while recruiting. Kids from all over come here to play for our program and we are going to have to land those kids in order to be where we want to be.

Junior QB Tyler Hanson has struggled a little in at the start of the season for Colorado. His 48 for 83 completion percentage is 57% and his 3 TD passes have been outpaced by his 6 INT. Tyler is averaging 197.6 yards per game and has a QB rating of 115.3. For the Buffs to reach their potential this year Tyler will have to step it up in the passing game.
The Buffaloes running game is led by Junior HB Rodney Stewart who has gained 330 yards in 48 carries so far this season. That is an impressive 6.8 yards per carry average to go along with 4 TDs. Rodney is averaging 110.0 yards per game with a long of 73 and no fumbles on the season. Rodney seems to be the heart of the Colorado offense.